Winnipegger gets three years for profiting from sex services

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This article was published 24/06/2022 (1231 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man was sentenced last month to three years in custody for recruiting women online to work as masseuses and provide sexual services for cash.

The conviction on the charge of material benefit from sexual services was the result of a long-term investigation into human trafficking, dubbed Project Bluff, that began in 2019, the Winnipeg Police Service announced Friday.

Two women initially told counter-exploitation unit investigators they had been recruited and directed to work as escorts through online subscription-based social-media platforms by a man who posted online advertisements featuring photos of the women.

Those ads initially offered massage services, and eventually transitioned to providing sexual services, police said.

“This happened during the pandemic and at the time a lot of people were using social media differently, where they were selling (explicit) photos and videos, and this is where the victims were identified by the accused and recruited,” said Staff Sgt. Maria Koniuck.

“You have a situation where people are more desperate, they’re looking for income and, as all of us dealt with through the pandemic, we didn’t know what was going to happen month to month.”

Police would not confirm which websites specifically were part of the investigation, which involved searching through ads to find other possible victims.

“What was unique about this one was we clearly recognized there was a potential for more… We were building evidence for other potential victims we did not know would come forward or not,” she said.

Koniuck would not reveal the exact number of women who had been potentially exploited, but said it was many.

In April 2021, police raided three Winnipeg rental condominium units, which Koniuck described as secure locations used to provide sexual services. Police arrested one man and seized more than $42,000 in cash.

Ferosh Tailor, 33, of Winnipeg, was initially charged with two counts of procuring persons to provide sexual services, advertising sexual services, material benefit from sexual services, and sexual assault.

Tailor pleaded guilty to material benefit from sexual services and was sentenced in May. All other charges were stayed by the courts.

Human trafficking charges were not ultimately laid.

“The difference between human trafficking and what the charges we did here is that for human trafficking, you have to have the fear that you are in danger, someone is in danger, so they have to do whatever the labour is,” Koniuck said.

“I found with our accused, deception was a large part of it and there was fear there but it was underlying, so for a lot of women, that is enough — but in the legal sense, it’s not considered human trafficking.”

Koniuck noted not all sex workers are being exploited, and highlighted changes in how the counter-exploitation unit operates compared to its predecessors.

“It’s something that, as long as they’ve made the decision and they’re making choices, we want to support them and we want them to feel safe,” she said.

In 2014, prostitution was partially decriminalized in Canada. The selling of sexual services is legal, and sex workers are allowed to advertise their own services, but purchasing the services remains illegal, as does third parties profiting from it.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera